Chapter 9
Becca threw herself into the job of pulling the proposal together. Carl greased a few wheels and got her in touch with the many French government agencies that she needed to convince to guarantee the construction loan for the factory building complex. She immediately ran into a brick wall. The French refused to back the loan. She went to the start-up, which was to be called FMI for France Micro International, and got the number of French jobs the chip factory would employ and went back to the French. When they balked, she threatened to go to Forbes magazine and expose the fact that the French government was anti-business and anti-French jobs. After three months of meetings she had a commitment that she would receive a government insured construction loan and three years of reduced property taxes deferred to the fourth, fifth and six years and an additional seven years of reduced taxes. Problems started to threaten the deal. The start-up couldn't raise any additional funds for the chip making machinery. The deal looked like it might fall through.
She went to a park and sat on a bench until dark and went back to the office to talk to Carl. He was working on a problem at one of his companies in America. She sat down and waited until he looked up.
"Carl, we have a problem. FMI can't get financing for the chip making machinery. I have the financing for the real estate. If the financing for the outfitting of the factory can't be found the deal is dead.
Carl smiled, "I don't know how you got this far. Do you have any ideas?"
"Yes. If I can talk the French into backing a loan for the machinery we still might be able to close this deal. What if you finance fifty percent of the capital needed for the machinery and the French back a loan for the additional fifty percent. If the FMI folds, you will be owner of a chip plant complete with machinery and we could either run the business or sell it. I put a few feelers out and I have some contacts in Asia that are interested in used chip machinery. FMI will be making payments, including interest, on the machinery, so if they do go belly up you will have the machinery for something less than fifty percent of it's value. If you sell the machinery you'll have a large factory that you will have for other uses."
He thought for several minutes, "Go with it. I'll set up a French company to provide the money. The French will insist that you have French money in the deal. If they buy the deal we'll have to start construction right away. Have you made sure that the roads and utilities are adequate?"
She had not even thought about roads and utilities. She shook her head and assured him that she would have everything in place before she committed them to a deal.
The next day she went to the local authorities with the plans for the factory and the plan for the business. The locals were enthusiastic that jobs were coming to their area and they made a verbal commitment to immediately started planning to provide the infrastructure that would be needed. Becca warned them of the time restraints and she was surprised to find that the local government had been trying to get industry into the area and most of the planning was done. They assured her that construction of the roads and utilities would be completed before the factory was.
She had a much harder time convincing the French to guarantee the loan for fifty percent of the machinery. When they realized that the deal hinged on the financing they reluctantly agree on the condition that the money was French money. She assured them that it was.
All parties accepted the proposal and FMI started the process to get the plant constructed, machinery installed and the employees hired. Becca made sure that all of the politicians had photo ops and that the newspaper printed the photos with high praise for the hard work of the politicians in securing jobs for French citizens.
Twelve months after the proposal was first presented to Carl the chip plant produced is first product. This was a record for new chip plant construction. She had put a trailer on site to oversee construction and to solve problems, hopefully before they arose. The politicians were out in force for the opening and several political careers were insured. Becca and Carl made sure that their names never came up. The newspapers lauded the government for taking France into the twenty-first century with French know-how and French money.
After the grand opening, Becca sat in Carl's office very pleased with herself. She had pulled it off with tons of hard work and not a little bit of smoothing the right egos. She had refused to provide the financing for the machinery unless she was allowed to have her auditors review the company's books monthly.
Carl poured them each a Champaign, "Well, I didn't think that you could do it. I really don't know if I could have done it. I thank you. Do you have any idea of how much the company stands to make on this?
Becca shook her head. She knew that it was a lot of money.
Carl handed her an envelope, "If FMI goes belly up, we'll make about three hundred and fifty thousand dollars if we liquidate everything right away, more if we can make a go of the chip plant.
She held up the envelope, "What's this?'
"Open it. That is the business card of the manager of a bank in Cook Islands. The numbers on the back of the card are for a numbered bank account in that bank. There is ten million dollars in that account. All you have to do is wire them or call them and they will transfer whatever funds you need to wherever you tell them. You will have to call them tomorrow to set up passwords and such. I picked a bank in the Cook Islands because they are the tightest banking system in the world. They refuse to give information about your account to anyone. No one in the world except you and I and a few people in the bank know that you have that money. After you set up your passwords, even I won't be able to find out how much you have."
She looked at him trying to find out if he was serious, "Is this for real?"
"Yes it is. As I said I thank you for pulling this together. That is your commission. Now how about we get something to eat. I want to take Marie out to dinner. She's going back to the States tomorrow.
Becca got up and she looked at the card in the envelope again. Ten million dollars. She had never had any surplus money in her adult life. She and Howard were always trying to juggle money to keep the bill collectors away.
Carl saw her looking at the envelope with tears in her eyes. He went to her and put his arm around her shoulders.
"That's not charity. You earned every penny of that money. Some people would say that I am cheating you only giving you ten million.
His voice softened, "Becca, you are rich enough to go anywhere you want and do anything you want. You have surprised me. I would like to keep you working for me. As for our relationship, I would like to continue, as we have been the past months. I know that I have been less than honorable with you, but maybe we can take our time and see where this journey takes us.
Becca turned to him and kissed him.
"I don't like to fly commercial planes, so I'll just have to stay until you take me back to the States.
They left to get Marie. Marie had started to be a problem. She was obviously jealous of Becca and was staying in Chico's room most nights. Chico didn't mind but Marie would use every opportunity to belittle Becca or to sabotage her plans. She had been asking when they were going back to the States. Several times Marie disappeared for days and would come back as if she had never been gone. Her shopping trips were getting out of hand and Carl had had to send the plane back to the states with the things she had bought.
He called Marie and told her that they were leaving the office and
to be ready when they got to the hotel. He told her he would call here
when they were in front of the hotel. The restaurant that he had in
mind was pleased to accept his reservation. Carl made it a point to tip
the matre de and waiters well so he never had trouble with
reservations. They discussed the chip plant deal that they had just
completed on the drive back to the hotel. When they pulled in front of
the hotel he called Marie and told her to come down to the car.